Comelec to destroy 6 million ballots

The six million ballots that have been printed for the May 12 midterm elections will have to be disposed of through shredding following the Supreme Court (SC)'s issuance of a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the disqualification of one senatorial aspirant, according to the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

- By RHODINA VILLANUEVA

At a press briefing yesterday, Comelec Chairman George Garcia disclosed that poll officials would ask permission from the Commission on Audit (COA) to have these ballots secured and then destroyed.

"There is a need to subject these ballots to an inventory and submit a report to COA. We will not burn, but will shred all these ballots so that fears that they might be used in the coming elections will be erased," Garcia said.

"We should remember that these ballots are original ballots and therefore, if these will be fed inside the machine, they will be accepted," he added.

A ballot costs about P22, according to the Comelec.

"That is what we are paying the National Printing Office. We have to also consider the paper, ink, as well as the pay of our dayshift and nightshift workers at the NPO. So more or less that is our expense," Garcia said.

The SC on Tuesday released a TRO against the disqualification of senatorial aspirant Subair Guinthum Mustapha and four local candidates, including former Caloocan City representative Edgar Erice.

Given the TRO, the Comelec suspended the printing of ballots as the poll body should include Mustapha on the list of senatorial candidates.

"We are already delayed. But these two weeks we have lost, it will be subtracted from the 77 days of ballot printing we have set... All the activities related to the ballots will have to be pushed back," Garcia said.

The Comelec said it is also looking at using the NPO's four additional printing machines, together with the two provided by Miru Systems now being used to fast-track the printing of new ballots.